From left: James Omaca-Tetteh, Yvonne Yemoteley Botchey, Linus Kumi and Gustav Nii Ayi Mokobi Aryee
FIDELITY BANK in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) initiated a four-part webinar series to offer financial and business strategies for SMEs to navigate the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The webinar series, organized under the bank’s new thought leadership series, presented on ‘Surviving Today to Thrive Tomorrow’; ‘Accessing Finance During Crises’; ‘Communicating with Stakeholders During Crises’; and ‘Adjusting your Business Plan During Crises’.
These were presented by leading IFC consultant, master trainer and instructional designer, Margaret Jackson, who is also the Managing Partner of Rainbow Consult.
Moderated by Jimmy Karima Chakacha, an IFC SME Banking Analyst based in Kenya, the webinar series provided SMEs with valuable insights on the topics. Explaining the rationale behind the SME webinar series, Julian Opuni, Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Ghana, said, “SMEs are a critical segment of the bank and our economy; and the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly impacted that sector among others. Therefore, it was important to present them with practical tools to help them to sustain their businesses through this challenging time.”
“In addition to this training webinar, we supported our SME clients with interest rate reductions across various sectors, provided short and medium-term measures such as loan moratoriums and restructuring of loans to cushion repayments, digital banking and other capacity-building programmes to help overcome Covid-19 related challenges,” adding that “in the coming months we will launch innovative programmes aimed at expanding our support to young entrepreneurs in the country,” Mr. Opuni stated.
Mr. Opuni further disclosed that “this informative webinar series was designed to help SMEs to remain afloat by instilling in them the importance of being innovative to better serve clients, reducing wastage, improving customer service and establishing digital protocols to ensure productivity.”